1. THE FIVE GENERIC COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES: WHICH ONE TO EMPLOY?
CHAPTER 5
THE FIVE GENERIC COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES: WHICH ONE TO EMPLOY?

2. Understand what distinguishes each of the five generic strategies and why some of these strategies work better in certain kinds of industry and competitive conditions than in others.
Gain command of the major avenues for achieving a competitive advantage based on lower costs.
Learn the major avenues to a competitive advantage based on differentiating a company’s product or service offering from the offerings of rivals.
Recognize the attributes of a best-cost provider strategy—a hybrid of low-cost provider and differentiation strategies.

3. WHY DO STRATEGIES DIFFER?
Is the firm’s market target broad or narrow?
Key factors that distinguish one strategy from another
Is the competitive advantage pursued linked to low costs or product differentiation?
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4. THE FIVE GENERIC COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES
Low-Cost Provider
Striving to achieve lower overall costs than rivals on products that attract a broad spectrum of buyers.
Broad Differentiation
Differentiating the firm’s product offering from rivals’ with attributes that appeal to a broad spectrum of buyers.
Focused Low-Cost
Concentrating on a narrow price-sensitive buyer segment and on costs to offer a lower-priced product.
Focused Differentiation
Concentrating on a narrow buyer segment by meeting specific tastes and requirements of niche members
Best-Cost Provider
Giving customers more value for the money by offering upscale product attributes at a lower cost than rivals
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5. The Five Generic Competitive Strategies
FIGURE 5.1
The Five Generic Competitive Strategies
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6. LOW-COST PROVIDER STRATEGIES
Effective Low-Cost Approaches:
Pursue cost-savings that are difficult imitate.
Avoid reducing product quality to unacceptable levels.
Competitive Advantages and Risks:
Greater total profits and increased market share gained from underpricing competitors.
Larger profit margins when selling products at prices comparable to and competitive with rivals.
Low pricing does not attract enough new buyers.
Rival’s retaliatory price cutting set off a price war.
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7. MAJOR AVENUES FOR ACHIEVING A COST ADVANTAGE
Low-Cost Advantage
A firm’s cumulative costs across its overall value chain must be lower than competitors’ cumulative costs.
How to Gain a Low-cost Advantage:
Perform value chain activities more cost-effectively than rivals.
Revamp the firm’s overall value chain to eliminate or bypass cost-producing activities.
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8. COST-EFFICIENT MANAGEMENT OF VALUE CHAIN ACTIVITIES
Cost Driver
Is a factor with a strong influence on a firm’s costs.
Can be asset- or activity-based.
Securing a Cost Advantage:
Use lower-cost inputs and hold minimal assets
Offer only “essential” product features or services
Offer only limited product lines
Use low-cost distribution channels
Use the most economical delivery methods
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9. James Sinegal
Costco Founder
CEO

10. Cost Drivers: The Keys to Driving Down Company Costs
FIGURE 5.2
Cost Drivers: The Keys to Driving Down Company Costs
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11. COST-CUTTING METHODS
Striving to capture all available economies of scale.
Taking full advantage of experience and learning-curve effects.
Trying to operate facilities at full capacity.
Improving supply chain efficiency.
Using lower cost inputs wherever doing so will not entail too great a sacrifice in quality.
Using the firm’s bargaining power vis-à-vis suppliers or others in the value chain system to gain concessions.
Using communication systems and information technology to achieve operating efficiencies.
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12. COST-CUTTING METHODS (cont’d)
Employing advanced production technology and process design to improve overall efficiency.
Being alert to the cost advantages of outsourcing or vertical integration.
Motivating employees through incentives and company culture.
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13. REVAMPING THE VALUE CHAIN SYSTEM TO LOWER COSTS
Use a direct sales force and a company website to bypass the activities and costs of distributors and dealers.
Streamline operations by eliminating low value- added or unnecessary work steps and activities.
Reduce materials handling and shipping costs by having suppliers locate their plants or warehouses close to the firm’s own facilities.
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14. WHEN A LOW-COST PROVIDER STRATEGY WORKS BEST
Price competition among rival sellers is vigorous.
Identical products are available from many sellers.
There are few ways to differentiate industry products.
Most buyers use the product in the same ways.
Buyers incur low costs in switching among sellers.
The majority of industry sales are made to a few, large volume buyers.
New entrants can use introductory low prices to attract buyers and build a customer base.
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15. BROAD DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGIES
Effective Differentiation Approaches:
Carefully study buyer needs and behaviors, values and willingness to pay for a unique product or service.
Incorporate features that both appeal to buyers and create a sustainably distinctive product offering.
Use higher prices to recoup differentiation costs.
Advantages of Differentiation:
Command premium prices for the firm’s products
Increased unit sales due to attractive differentiation
Brand loyalty that bonds buyers to the firm’s products
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16. 5–16

17. Effective differentiation

18. Uniqueness Drivers: The Keys to Creating a Differentiation Advantage
FIGURE 5.3
Uniqueness Drivers: The Keys to Creating a Differentiation Advantage
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19. Starbucks, values driven differentiated company
Schultz asked – “how can we deliver value without lowering
the price and diluting profit margins?”
Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 19,763 stores in 59 countries, including 12,848 in the United States, 1,264 in Canada, 973 in Japan, 778 in Great Britain, 621 in China, 441 in South Korea, 350 in Mexico and 269 in Taiwan.
In January 2008, Schultz took over as President and CEO after an eight year hiatus, replacing Jim Donald, who took the posts in 2005 but was asked to step down after sales slowed in Schultz aims to restore what he calls the "distinctive Starbucks experience" in the face of rapid expansion.

20. SUCCESSFUL APPROACHES TO SUSTAINABLE DIFFERENTIATION
Differentiation that is difficult for rivals to duplicate or imitate (inimitable):
Company reputation
Long-standing relationships with buyers
Unique product or service image
Differentiation that creates switching costs that lock in buyers
Patent-protected product innovation
Relationship-based customer service
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21. WHEN A DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY WORKS BEST
Diversity of buyer needs and uses for the product
Many ways that differentiation can have value to buyers
Few rival firms follow a similar differentiation approach
Rapid change in technology and product features
Market Circumstances Favoring Differentiation
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22. PITFALLS TO AVOID IN PURSUING A DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY
Relying on product attributes easily copied by rivals.
Introducing product attributes that do not evoke an enthusiastic buyer response.
Eroding profitability by overspending on efforts to differentiate the firm’s product offering.
Offering only trivial improvements in quality, service, or performance features vis-à-vis the products of rivals.
Adding frills and features such that the product exceeds the needs and use patterns of most buyers.
Charging too high a price premium.
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23. FOCUSED (OR MARKET NICHE) STRATEGIES
Focused Strategy Approaches
Focused Low-Cost Strategy
Focused Market Niche Strategy
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24. Focused Low Cost Strategy (from book)

25. WHEN A FOCUSED LOW-COST OR FOCUSED DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY IS ATTRACTIVE
The target market niche is big enough to be profitable and offers good growth potential.
Industry leaders chose not to compete in the niche— focusers avoid competing against strong competitors
It is costly or difficult for multi-segment competitors to meet the specialized needs of niche buyers.
The industry has many different niches and segments.
Rivals have little or no interest in the target segment.
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26. THE RISKS OF A FOCUSED LOW-COST OR FOCUSED DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY
Competitors will find ways to match the focused firm’s capabilities in serving the target niche.
The specialized preferences and needs of niche members to shift over time toward the product attributes desired by the majority of buyers.
As attractiveness of the segment increases, it draws in more competitors, intensifying rivalry and splintering segment profits.
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27. BEST-COST PROVIDER STRATEGIES
Differentiation: Providing desired quality/ features/performance/ service attributes
Low Cost Provider: Charging a lower price than rivals with similar caliber product offerings
$35,400
Best-Cost Provider Hybrid Approach
$51.100
Value-Conscious Buyer
$50,805
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28. WHEN A BEST-COST PROVIDER STRATEGY WORKS BEST
Product differentiation is the market norm.
There are a large number of value-conscious buyers who prefer midrange products.
There is competitive space near the middle of the market for a competitor with either a medium-quality product at a below-average price or a high-quality product at an average or slightly higher price.
Economic conditions have caused more buyers to become value-conscious.
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29. Best-Cost Provider Strategy
THE BIG RISK OF A BEST-COST PROVIDER STRATEGY—GETTING SQUEEZED ON BOTH SIDES
Best-Cost Provider Strategy
High-End Differentiators
Low-Cost Providers
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30. Examples – Best Cost Providers

31. THE CONTRASTING FEATURES OF THE FIVE GENERIC COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES: A SUMMARY
Each Generic Strategy:
Positions the firm differently in its market.
Establishes a central theme for how the firm intends to outcompete rivals.
Creates boundaries or guidelines for strategic change as market circumstances unfold.
Entails different ways and means of maintaining the basic strategy.
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32. Distinguishing Features of the Five Generic Competitive Strategies
TABLE 5.1
Distinguishing Features of the Five Generic Competitive Strategies
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33. TABLE 5.1
Distinguishing Features of the Five Generic Competitive Strategies (cont’d)
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